Mt. Ararat’s Aaron Thurlow runs alongside Lewiston’s Alex Rivet who controls the ball during the Wednesday afternoon lacrosse game held at Bates College.
LEWISTON — A win is a win, and the Lewiston boys’ lacrosse team is advancing in the postseason after defeating Mt. Ararat 11-8 in the Class A North quarterfinals at Garcelon Field on Wednesday.
The Blue Devils, though, wish the victory was more complete and convincing.
“Good start, but we still want to string together a full game,” Lewiston coach Ben Fournier said. “We took our foot off the pedal a little bit and Mt. Ararat kept plugging away, and they almost clawed back a few times.
“Overall, we played well. A win’s a win. We’ll definitely take it.”
The Blue Devils (9-4) advance to face Messalonskee in the A North semifinals Saturday at Lewiston High School. Messalonskee rallied to beat Edward Little 12-10 on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s quarterfinal started impeccably for the Blue Devils. After Roman Dennis won the opening faceoff, Lewiston passed the ball around until Alex Rivet bounced it into the back of the net only 26 seconds into the game.
Only 36 seconds later, Sam Payne attacked the middle, then pulled up and fired a shot into the goal from about 10 yards away. One minute and two seconds into the game, the Blue Devils were up 2-0.
“We wanted to come out flying, and not come out flat,” Fournier said. “So to pump in those two right away, that definitely helped, and it certainly paid off in the long run.
“We just want to try and keep that intensity and that level of play up the entire game, instead of coming out flying and then slowing down a little bit.”
Wade added another goal six minutes later, and Rivet made it 4-0 with 4.8 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
The Blue Devils had Mt. Ararat right where they wanted, but the Eagles weren’t ready to concede.
Mt. Ararat’s Sawyer Watson scored the first of his three goals early in the second quarter.
“I think after those (four) quick goals, we kind of thought to take it easy since we had a bunch of goals on them,” Wade said.
Pat Racine and Ben Bolduc each scored for Lewiston 35 seconds apart midway through the period, but Connor Brown and Watson added goals to cut the halftime deficit to 6-3.
In the third, Brown’s second goal put the Eagles within two at 6-4, but two goals by Gunnar Wade and one by Garrett Poussard made it 9-4 heading into the final quarter.
All three of Lewiston’s third-quarter goals followed saves by goalie Bryan Wagg that were quickly advanced upfield. Poussard did most of the work on his goal, taking the ball almost the entire way and finishing with 1.2 seconds remaining.
“We got things rolling,” Mt. Ararat coach Matt Haskell said, “but it was score two goals, give up a goal, score two goals give up a goal. We never got like a four-goal run to really get the tempo going.”
Racine’s second goal made it 10-4, but goals by Owen Kelly, Steve Schuman and Watson decreased Lewiston’s lead to 10-7.
Watson’s goal came with 45 seconds left. Dennis added another for Lewiston with 25 seconds to play, and Orion Sargent scored for Mt. Ararat with eight seconds left.
“Mt. Ararat definitely didn’t stop, they kept plugging away all game,” Fournier said, “and I think we were happy with our lead and kind of sat back a little bit, and they almost made us pay with the game.
“Mt. Ararat, historically, they don’t give up the whole game. They’re a good team, well-coached.”
The Eagles, A North’s seventh seed, finishes the season with a 6-7 record.
The Blue Devils, the second seed, split the season series with third-seeded Messalonskee, winning 13-7 in the season opener and losing 14-9 on May 10.
“I feel like we just need to play a full game,” Wade said.
Saturday’s semifinal will be played at Don Roux Field due to Bates College’s alumni week.
Mt. Ararat’s Steven Schuman controls the ball as Lewiston’s Pat Racine plays defense during Wednesday nights lacrosse game at Bates College.
Lewiston’s Alex Rivet fires the ball at Mt. Ararat’s goalie, Parker Lacey at Wednesday afternoon’s lacrosse game at Bates College. Mt. Ararat’s Aaron Thurlow, on right, is also in on the play.
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